Protesters target Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s campaign kickoff

About a dozen people gathered outside a North Dawson Street restaurant Tuesday night to protest Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin’s re-election campaign kickoff.

The group held signs and spoke through a bullhorn, shaming donors and encouraging those driving by Mulino Italian Kitchen & Bar to honk their horns.

The protest was led by Wanda Gilbert Coker, who created the social media page “MAB Got To Go” after the City Council disbanded Raleigh’s citizen advisory groups in 2020, soon after Baldwin and the current council were elected.

The protesters read the names of campaign donors and those who had RSVP’d to the event, calling them gross and shameful.

“We want donors to know voting for Mary-Ann Baldwin is like voting for Donald Trump,” Coker said.

She said this part of downtown used to be a Black neighborhood and now it’s been gentrified.

A Raleigh police officer told the group around 6:30 p.m/to stop using the siren on the bullhorn.

As of 7 p.m. neither Baldwin nor any of the attendees had come out to speak with the protesters.

The price of the tickets, which advertised guests including former Mayors Nancy McFarlane, Charles Meeker, Smedes York and Thomas Bradshaw, ranged from $50 to a top sponsorship level of $5,600, according to the invitation.

As people left, the protesters asked if the price tag to attend the event was worth it. They said the money spent on political donations would have been better spent buying food for those who need it.

“This used to be the Black community,” Coker said. “They have no empathy for the Black community and our history, and culture.”

It’s time, she said, for a grassroots organization representing the people to take over the city’s political agenda.

The protesters were also angry that the City Council elections, scheduled for last month, were pushed back to November 2022. after a delay in the release of redistricting data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The City Council voted in closed session to ask the General Assembly to move its elections to even years and change the method of election from run-off to plurality, meaning no run-offs. The decision was met with criticism and an ongoing recall effort to force a special election to remove Baldwin from office.

This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 7:41 PM.